Just Drawing

I came back from one of my life drawing sessions …. (yes, I have more than one each week … privileged, little, snotty boy, right? Hah! Jealousy will get you nowhere!) … where was I? right, life drawing … and I’d moved back to lines again, which is kind of getting on my nerves a bit, but this is what that evening brought about:

So, that’s … pencil marks first (finding the basic lines, 1 minute max), fineliner directly afterwards (to commit to the lines, 2 minutes or more) and then a reduced set of coloured pencils (10 to 15 minutes of cool Zen-ness). These are all on the same sheet of A3 190gr/sqm “1584” paper. The paper is great for me and my selection of tools.

Note: I must admit, I’ve been spending some time with a new book I’ve been given as an early birthday present from my gran, it covers Figure Drawing in a refreshingly modern but also academic manner, I may mention it in a future post. The studying of books is starting to pay off, if I’m allowed to say that myself at all.

In the meantime, because I can’t go to life drawing more than twice a week (can I?), I’ve been posing for one or two daily self portraits in front of a mirror. 5 minutes per sketch, all in an A6 Moleskine diary with a fineliner and with limited success. Here’s one of the better ones, if you ask me:

Note: Probably I should also mention that I’m currently taking Paul Heaston’s latest Craftsy course, all about making lines and crosshatching and all that stuff he’s famous for.

My daily gesture practice was interrupted a day or two, which is ok once in a while. But I feel I’m not stretching myself enough here, so I’m going to be cranking up the seriousness and attitude in the next few weeks. Here’s an example of 30 second and 90 second gestures using https://quickposes.com :

And to end the post, here’s a little painting I did on a very windy day at a sketch meeting in June (I haven’t posted this yet, right?). It’s just lovely knowing you’re painting and sketching surrounded by other painters and sketchers. Good to get out, mingle, feel like you’re sharing an experience, not just stay shut away at home, drawing cups, shoes and selfies:

Productive boy ! I like the different aproaches of drawing , the quickposes are awesome, not easy to do them I know tried myself mmm, great self portrait , not easy neither , already curious to read your next post BUT have to say it works stimulating !